84 
DESTROYING THE ROSE CHAFER. 
Mrs. George Chrisman, of Rockingham County, Va., in a letter to the 
Country Gentleman of July 2, 1891, proposes a novel course to be fol- 
lowed under certain circumstances in fighting this noted pest. She has 
observed that during the first day of their appearance they follow a 
stream or damp ground of some sort, never flying high, and can be 
tracked to the hatching ground in that way. She drains the hatching 
grounds and applies salt heavily as a fertilizer. On the second day, ac- 
cording to her observations, they seem to be stronger, and leave the 
water course, flying higher, when it is difficult to track them. The cir- 
cumstances in her locality seem to be peculiar, but where similar sur- 
roundings are found her plan is a good one. 
QUASSIA FOR THE HOP APHIS. 
Washington and Oregon hop-growers are again trying some of the old 
remedies against the Hop Aphis. Among these a strong decoction of 
quassia chips, diluted at the rate of one hundred gallons of water to “a 
few gallons” of the decoction, was recently recommended through the 
columns of a California journal. Careful experiments made in the New 
York hop yards some years ago (see Report of the Entomologist, 1888) 
showed that while a similar wash kills the lice when they are reached, 
it will not spread like an oily mixture, and it is therefore greatly inferior 
to a well prepared kerosene emulsion. 
SILK NESTS OF MEXICAN SOCIAL LARVA. 
In reference to the note on pages 482-483 of vol. 111, with the above 
heading, Mr. S. H. Scudder has kindly referred us to his remarks on 
page 1,038 of his ‘‘ Butterflies of New Wngland,” in which, in discussing 
the general characteristics of the sub-family Pierinz, he refers to species 
in the subfamily which are sccial, including Aporia crategi, a Kuropean ~ 
caterpillar, which lives in company “ beneath a web spread over the haw- 
thorn bushes.” He refers to the Mexican species as Hucheira socials, 
which is found at an elevation of 3,200 metres above the sea, ‘ where 
the nest, as described by Humboldt and Westwood, is 8 inches long, and 
made of tough layers of parchment-like silk, which Humboldt says can 
be used as writing paper, and indeed was used as such by the early 
Spanish fathers. It is suspended from a tree, and has a hole in the bot- 
tom for the entrance and exit of the caterpiliars. Within this sac they 
undergo their transformations, and, being thus protected, the chrysalids 
are attached to the inner walls by their hinder extremity only, having 
no need of the supporting girth that is otherwise invariably used 
throughout this family.” 
In reference tothe same item, our esteemed correspondent, Dr. Alfred 
Dugés, of Guanajuato, Mexico, has sent us the following: 
In Insecr Lire, vol. 11, Nos. 11 and 12, p. 483, I find the description of a large 
cocoon found on the Madrono (Arbutus sp.?), and I notice that it is not known to what 
